A normal user's look into the world of 3D Stereo Technologies

Movavi Video Converter 3D is another commercial software that allows easy 2D to 3D video conversion with Side by Side output as well as multiple anaglyph formats. The software uses the same easy and familiar simple autoconversion techniques relying on frame offsetting and deformation in order to produce the illusion of real depth in a 2D video. The software is commercial, but you can download a free trial version and test it for 30 days, the trial just inserts annoying text over the converted video, but it should not be a problem when just evaluating the software. The software offers multiple video containers and compression formats and has predefined output profiles for multiple mobile devices, but is useful for outputting in anaglyph format only. The Side by Side outputted converted to 3D videos can be opened and watched with the 3D Vision Video Player for example…

You also get GPU accelerated conversion to speed up the process if you have the compatible hardware, like an Nvidia-based GPU and even Multi-GPU configurations are apparently supported for even faster CUDA acceleration. The 2D to 3D conversion process is user controllable through three different sliders: 3D depth, 3D Shift and Perspective, but these don’t have very precise numbering system to give you information on the settings you are using. These setting are the ones that control how the frame gets deformed or the offset for the frames for the left and right eye and unfortunately there are no some recommended settings that can help you get better results, it is only up to you to find the best settings that work for the specific video.

Another thing that I’m not too happy about the software, especially considering it is a commercial solution, is that there is no some sort of scene detection to adjust the left/right frame offsetting used to simulate the Pulfrich effect. As a result when you have scene changes in the video that you’ve converted that are done via cuts and some transition effects you may get uncomfortable feeling when watching the converted video. And considering that the Movavi Video Converter 3D Personal license is priced at $74.99 USD (although there are occasional promotions running for lower prices), the lack of some small, but important features to differentiate the commercial from the freely available 2D to 3D autoconversion solutions is not acceptable. Still, if you are interested in the software, then you are welcome to try it out and share your comments about it below.